Dallas Cowboys Blog

Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis: ‘I haven’t taken a shot one time this year’

Joe DeCamillis was unable to make it through practice this time last year.

Now, the Cowboys special teams coach is able to make it through two sessions and still be on his feet at the end of the day.

“I haven’t taken a shot one time this year,” said DeCamillis, who fractured his lower cervical and upper thoracic spine in the collapse of the Cowboys indoor practice facility 16 months ago. “My mind is so much better and focused on what it needs to be focused on, which are decisions, time outs, those type of situations.

“I’m a lot more focused than I was last year because I’m not in so much pain, so that’s good.”

There’s another big difference. DeCamillis has been sleeping in a beat-up, brown recliner at his home since the injury because he’s been unable to lay on a bed for the night. He had the chair shipped to the San Antonio portion of training camp so he could sleep.

The chair did not make the trip to Oxnard.

“I’ve been sleeping in a bed for the past two weeks,” DeCamillis said.

“I hope that chair goes away, personally. My wife hopes it goes a lot more. She didn’t want it to come back in the house, I can promise you.”